“CoESO” (eco-sustainable summer roofing) is the name of the project of the Ics CG Viola Institute and the Cnr-Irsa of Taranto, in collaboration with Legambiente, financier of the activities, and the Port authorities. In its second year of life, the project is a virtuous example of how the school must make the peculiarities of the territory its own and integrate them into its educational activities and teaching strategies, becoming part of the cultural and scientific vitality of the city.
Ics Viola, former Provincial Center for Inclusion, accredited Erasmus+ since 2020 and among the 57 Italian schools to be recognized as an E-Twinning school on the national territory, has tenaciously led since last school year action research activities through its Scientific Department and the Institute’s Civic Ed contacts, coordinated by prof Teresa Bellanima of the Viola Institute, by Dr. Giuseppe Portacci and by Dr Magda Di Leo of the Cnr-Irsa of Taranto. A way of teaching that goes beyond the desk and the classroom and embraces the concept of educating citizenship, understood as being part of a community that lives and interacts in its own reality. Aptitude for outdoor school, who learns from the history and culture of the context in which they live, to which Ics Viola was introduced by the Erasmus+ study and training projects and by the good practices acquired within the Stem activities. On June 5th, at the Aula Magna of the University of Bari degree course in Environmental Sciences, the “Second Junior Congress of Marine Biology” illustrated the pedagogical choices and the scientific results obtained at the end of the project by all the classes of Ics Viola. The students were involved in a journey of discovery and study of the phases of production of mussel farming in Taranto starting from the collection of the “seed” and then proceeding with the grafting and unraveling or the exposure/emergence of the production units (pergolas) in an aerial environment for approximately 24 hours. The display it is a technique devised by shellfish farmers from Taranto which, by exploiting the ability of mussels to resist tidal environments, is essential to free them from the organisms – plants and animals – that settle on their shells since these communities (epibionts) are not capable, at contrary to mussels, to survive in an aerial environment. With this technique, mussel farmers are able to maintain a constant population of mussels on the pergolas, giving the product the cleanliness and shine of the shell so requested by consumers.
The waxing is practiced every 40-50 days on fixed structures called “fusoli”, visible to Taranto residents passing through the Punta Penna Bridge or along the banks of the Little Sea. In the last 15-20 years, the increase in temperatures has caused stressful, even deadly, conditions for mussels. To adapt to the new conditions, the mussel farmers of Taranto have taken steps to fusel covering with PVC sheets, also used in viticulture, which, due to the intense irradiation of the sun, wind and atmospheric agents in general, often tend to tear, lose their function, but above all to disperse further plastic waste into the marine environment.
Objective of the project, son of the previous one “Research…ctors of the two seas” aimed at understanding mussel farming, the shading effectiveness of sheets made of biodegradable substances such as hemp and of coolers made of cane or in any case made of other materials, alternatives to plastic, was tested. The result of the field experimental activities conducted by the promising scientific team of Ics Viola of Taranto was, therefore, to evaluate the temperature difference between biodegradable shading systems compared to green PVC sheets.
Among the protagonists of the project are also the pupils of the nursery school, guided by their teachers. The little ones were involved in the activities through the narration of the fantastic journey of four pirates and a female pirate. “A sea of emotions” is the name of the integrated path between stories, games and psychomotor skills in the magical world of the sea and marine fauna in which the “garbage-eating” boat opposes the problem of waste dispersion in the sea and on the beaches.
The students of the first and second classes of Primary School, however, after visiting the natural and anthropic environment of landscape of Lido Azzurro – with the help of Novelune Cooperative – they created costumes inspired by known marine animals and, in recent weeks, they were guests of the Marine Protected Area and Natural Reserve of Torre Guaceto to observe the life cycle of turtles. A journey along the beach to understand the links between the inhabitants of the sea, the dangers that threaten it and the importance of protecting its balance through awareness of behaviors that can concretely guarantee its protection. Along the same lines, the teachers of the 3rd and 4th classes followed the students in the meetings with the teachers of the degree course Environmental Sciences of the Uniba, Polo Jonico of Taranto, which introduced the young researchers to the action research laboratories of Chemistry and Biology for the awareness of facts and phenomena through the implementation of simple experiments on the knowledge of the main characteristics and ways of living of animal and plant organisms.
The Research…ctors – a neologism that is very consistent with the training and experimental path of the “CoESO” project – completed the research path guided by teachers of the 5th classes of the Primary School and the classes of the Lower Secondary School, alongside the researchers from the Cnr-Irsa of the Ionian capital Cnr and the mussel farmers Peppe and Nicola. The students conducted measurements and evaluations of the data acquired during the days on the boat, reported and documented the project activities both at the Baptist school both at the dock of Cimino Park in Taranto to present them to the public during the final congress. “Knowledge does not crystallize into simple knowledge, but becomes competence, the ability to live one’s time and project oneself towards the future” concludes the Head of School Luca Calabrese, proudly.
